Broadcom (Irvine, Calif.) said through a statement that the court had adopted a unanimous jury finding that Qualcomm violated its duty to disclose patents to an industry standards body and thereby waived its rights to enforce two patents the company alleged covered the H.264 video compression standard.

But in a statement of its own issued late Thursday, Qualcomm (San Diego) put a different spin on the ruling. According to Qualcomm, the Judge Rudi Brewster in found no evidence that Qualcomm had engaged inequitable conduct in obtaining the patents. According to Qualcomm, the ruling found that Qualcomm had disclosed the most relevant prior art to the patent office and that Qualcomm was not guilty of any conduct before the patent office that would render the patents unenforceable.

The San Diego court is scheduled to hear argument on the appropriate remedy for Qualcomm's abuse on May 2, according to the Broadcom statement.

Qualcomm filed suit against Broadcom in San Diego federal court in October 2005 alleging that Broadcom products infringed the two patents.

Last week, Broadcom and Qualcomm agreed to dismiss, without prejudice, all patent claims and counter-claims pending in U.S. District Court in San Diego before Judge Rudi Brewster, and to dismiss with prejudice trade-secret claims in the same court.

The two companies settled four earlier patent claims on Feb. 23. The companies still have a trial pending in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif., as well as hearing before the U.S. International Trade Commission. At one point, the two companies were contending in as many as five separate jury trials in San Diego and Orange County, Calif.